How Great Was Babylon Really?

Nebuchadnezzar, King of ancient Babylon seemed to think that the city he build was truly magnificent, saying at Daniel 4:30: " Is not this Babylon the Great, that I myself have built for the royal house with the strength of my might and the dignity of my majesty?" But was he deluding himself?


He was quite a builder. According to historian the main temple in Babylon featured a tower or ziggurat over 230 feet or 70 meters high. That would make it comparable many of the modern sky scrapers designed by architects today. This was in addition to many temples, palaces, walls and that magnificent terraced garden.


But according to the author of Babylon--City of Wonders The Processional Way which ran through the Ishtar gate was bordered by statues of striding lions and was his grandest project as a builder.


The gate itself  was covered with deep blue glazed bricks which featured reliefs of hundreds  of marching bulls and dragons.


Visitors to this ancient city must have been awestruck by the magnificence of this and other architectural projects --  as were the archaeologists was uncovered the evidence of much of his work in the earth part of the  Twentieth Century.  He definitely  was not  deluding himself when speaking of the city he had designed and had built.